Anatoly (Kuznetsov) of Kerch

Life

Archbishop Anatoly was born on May 28, 1930 in Irkutsk in the Siberian part of the Soviet Union. He was active in the churches of the Diocese of Irkutsk, as a reader since 1947 and, then, from 1949 as a subdeacon for Bishop Pallady (Shestrennikov) of Irkutsk.

In 1949, he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary and continued his studies until his graduation in 1956, after which he entered the |Moscow Theological Academy. While attending the seminary, he was ordained a deacon on October 31, 1954, followed with his ordination as a priest on July 1, 1956. He graduated from the Moscow Academy in 1960 with a degree of Candidate of Theology. After his graduation, he remained with the academy, teaching first Holy Scripture in the Moscow seminary then from 1967 at the Moscow academy. During this time he also participated in the work of the Biblical Commission of the Publishing Department of Moscow Patriarchate.

On September 3, 1972, Archim. Anatoly was consecrated Bishop of Vilnius and Lithuania. On September 3, 1974, Bp. Anatoly was transferred to the position of Bishop of Zvenigorod, as the representative of the Patriarchate of Moscow to the Patriarchate of Antioch. On November 16, 1979, Bp. Anatoly was installed as Bishop of Ufa and Sterlitamak. On July 20, 1990, he was appointed Bishop of Kerch, as assistant bishop of the Diocese of Sourozh. On [[February 25[[, 1993, Bp. Anatoly was elevated to the rank of archbishop.

During the jurisdictional issues concerning the Diocese of Sourozh during the first years of the twenty first century, Abp. Anatoly was placed in a retired status from December 27, 2001 to July 17, 2002, after which he was returned to an active status with the diocese.